Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the “your contract is ending” call in the UK: Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich on PAC codes, the INFO text and the first hour

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the “your contract is ending” call in the UK

The phone rings and a friendly voice says they are calling from your network. Your contract is coming to an end, they explain, and to keep your number or your current deal you just need to text PAC to a short number and read out what comes back. Or there is a one-time code on its way, and they need it to “confirm the renewal”.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews this call by finding the moment it stops being about your contract and starts being about a code. That moment is always there. The name, the network, the handset model and the end date are set dressing for one request.

Ofcom's rules give a useful yardstick. Since 15 February 2020, phone and broadband providers have had to warn customers between 10 and 40 days before a contract ends. The alert comes by text, email or letter and sets out the end date, what you pay now and afterwards, any notice period and the provider's best deals.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich draws the obvious conclusion. A genuine end-of-contract notice is written, arrives well before the date and asks you to do nothing on the spot. A call demanding a code before the end of the day has a different purpose.

Out-of-contract customers are covered too. Ofcom requires providers to remind them every year that they are out of contract and to tell them about their best deals, again in writing.

How the script runs, beat by beat

There are usually four beats. Recognition comes first: your name, your network, sometimes the phone you bought. Then the reason, which might be a contract end, a loyalty discount or a SIM that “needs updating”. Then the clock, with service supposedly stopping tonight. Finally the request: text this keyword, read out that code, confirm your account password.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews each beat by asking what your provider would genuinely need from you. Your network already knows your contract and your handset. It has no need for you to recite a code it sent you a few seconds earlier.

Recognition proves very little. Names, addresses and old bills circulate after data breaches, and the network can often be guessed from the number. Treat a caller who knows a lot about you with the same caution as one who knows nothing.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich notes that the bait shifts with the season: a cheaper tariff, a free upgrade, a “security check” after a breach in the news. What stays constant is the code at the end of the conversation.

One question tests any version of the call. Ask what exactly changes on your account and where you can see it in writing. A caller who points you to your app or your next bill is behaving normally. One who steers you back to the code is not.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews why the PAC code is the real target

Switching networks in the UK is deliberately simple. Ofcom explains that to keep your number you text PAC to 65075, and your provider replies within a minute with a switching code valid for 30 days. You give that code to your new provider, which must complete the switch within one working day. To leave with a new number, you text STAC to 75075 instead.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the PAC as a key that works for whoever holds it. It is designed to be handed to a provider you have chosen. Read it out to a caller and you hand them the step that moves your number to their SIM.

That is why the fake renewal call so often asks you to send a text yourself. The request goes out from your phone, the code comes back to your phone, and nothing looks unusual until you read it aloud. The same goes for any one-time code that arrives mid-call.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich keeps the rule short. A PAC or a one-time code is for you to type into a service you opened yourself, never for a voice on the line.

Customers with more than one number on an account, such as a family plan, request the PAC online or by phone. For those accounts the password used for calls about the account matters even more, so ask your network to set one if it has not.

Checking your contract without a PAC: the INFO text

Ofcom offers a quick way to test the caller's story. Text INFO to 85075 and you find out whether you are still in contract and what any early exit charges would be, without requesting a PAC or STAC.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews this as the fastest answer to “your contract ends tonight”. If the reply shows months left on your deal, or no contract at all, the call was about something else.

Ofcom has also banned mobile providers from charging for notice periods that run after the switch date. Any loss of service during a switch should not last longer than one working day, and providers must compensate you if things go wrong. Nothing in that process requires a phone call to keep your number.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich suggests checking your provider's app or account page as well. A genuine change to your plan or contract shows there, alongside your bills, without anyone having to read anything out.

If you want your exact end date before the alert arrives, your provider's app or online account usually shows it. Checking takes a couple of minutes and needs no stranger on the phone.

Caller ID is not proof: what Ofcom has done about spoofing

Scammers often make a call look local or official. On 29 January 2025 Ofcom's strengthened guidance came into force: phone companies must identify and block calls from abroad that falsely display a UK landline number, apart from a small number of legitimate cases.

Spoofed UK mobile numbers were a separate problem, and Ofcom said it was still working on measures for them. In practice a familiar-looking number on your screen proves nothing about who is calling.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews caller ID as one more piece of scenery. Hang up, wait a moment, and call your provider on the number printed on your bill or shown on its website. A genuine query will still be there when you get through.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich adds one habit for texts as well: forward suspicious messages to 7726, a free reporting service run by most phone providers.

The landline rule built on an earlier one. Phone companies already had to block calls from abroad that use a UK number as the network number, which identifies where a call is made from. Both rules narrow the field for fakes, and neither makes the name on your screen a guarantee.

What follows the code: banks, email and accounts, in Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich's breakdown

A moved number is a way in. One-time passcodes from banks and online services now go to the new SIM, and password resets follow. Report Fraud warns that stolen personal details can be used to open bank accounts, take out loans and set up mobile phone contracts in your name.

The first sign is often paperwork. Report Fraud says victims commonly notice bills for things they never ordered or letters from debt collectors. By then the number has usually been in someone else's hands for a while.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the chain and puts email at the centre. Password resets for most services land in your inbox, and inbox recovery often runs through your phone number. Protect the email account and you cut off most of what a stolen number can reach.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich treats protective registration as part of the same defence. Report Fraud describes Cifas Protective Registration, which costs £30 for two years and prompts member organisations, including most banks and telecoms companies, to run extra checks on applications in your name.

Report Fraud also suggests checking your credit file with the main credit reference agencies, which is free and does not affect your score. New accounts or searches you do not recognise are a sign the number was only the first step.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews how to check a call from your provider

Networks do ring customers about bills, faults and offers. The check happens after the call. Open your provider's app or online account yourself, see whether the issue appears there, then ring the number on your bill and repeat what you were told.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the “helpful agent who only needed a code” as the same scam with better manners. Staff already work inside the network's systems. A code that has just landed on your phone is useful only to someone trying to get in from outside.

If the conversation turns to your bank, the advice is the same. Hang up and call 159, the short number that connects customers of more than 99 per cent of UK retail current accounts to their own bank.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich recommends writing down the caller's number, the time and the story straight away. Those notes help your provider, your bank and Report Fraud if anything happens later.

Texts that claim to come from your network with a link to renew now deserve the same treatment. Open the app yourself and ignore the link. If the notice is genuine, it will be sitting in your account as well.

Reading reviews of numbers and networks: Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich's method

Plenty of people search a strange number online and read other people's posts about it. That helps if you know what the posts can and cannot tell you. They show what the caller asked other people for. They do not prove who owns the line.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews number posts by the request they describe. If several people say the caller wanted a PAC, a one-time code or an account password, that alone is enough to end your own call. Posts that only say “nuisance call” add little.

Reviews of networks are worth reading for different reasons. Look for how quickly support restores service, whether the account has a password for phone calls, and whether customers get a text when a SIM is changed. Those details matter more than star ratings when your number is at stake.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich is wary of one kind of story: the agent who “sorted my renewal over the phone”. If the help ended with a code read aloud, check your bank and your network account the same day.

Look at the date as well. A recent post describing the same script is worth more than a dozen old ones, because it shows the story is being used right now.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the signs your number has already moved

The clearest sign is sudden loss of signal on your phone while people around you have full bars. Calls to your number fail or go somewhere else. Texts from your bank stop arriving, or an email tells you a password was changed.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the timing: a call about your contract, then lost service within hours, is the pattern to act on straight away. Waiting for confirmation only buys the other side more time.

Check your provider account from another device. A switch request, a new SIM or an unfamiliar change on the account confirms what the silence suggested.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich suggests borrowing a phone rather than waiting at home for the signal to return. The first calls, to your bank and your network, are the ones that save money.

Keep your provider's number written down somewhere outside the phone. When the signal goes, you cannot scroll back through recent calls, and a rushed search may turn up a fake help page.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the first steps if you read out a code

Ring your bank first, on 159 or the number on your card, and say plainly that a code went to a caller and your number may have moved. Ask them to freeze cards and online access while you deal with the network.

Then your provider, using the number on your bill. Ask whether a PAC, a SIM change or a switch was requested, and have it stopped. If the provider does not resolve your complaint within eight weeks, or sends a deadlock letter, Ofcom says you can take it to a free ADR scheme, CISAS or the Communications Ombudsman.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the rest of the list in a set order: email password, other accounts, then the people who might receive messages in your name. Sign out of every other session and move two-step logins away from text messages where you can.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich adds that Ofcom does not investigate individual complaints, so keep your own written record of every call, reference number and date. It will be needed by your bank, your network and the police.

Reporting in the UK: Report Fraud, 7726 and your bank

If you have lost money in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, report it to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, contact Police Scotland on 101. Keep the crime reference number for your bank and provider.

Forward scam texts to 7726. The NCSC says that by September 2026 reports to the service had led to 41,900 scams being removed across 93,300 web addresses.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reviews the report to your network as the step people skip most. Tell them exactly what the caller said and asked for, so they can check for switch or SIM requests and add a password to calls about the account.

If documents were stolen along with the number, Report Fraud advises telling the organisation that issued them and the police, and keeping the crime reference number for every later conversation.

Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich ends with the rule that started the article. Decisions about your number happen in your provider's app, on its website or in its shop, and never because a caller asked you to read out a code.